How to Homeschool on Vacation

I don’t know if you know this, but we LOVE to travel. Love it. We get away at every opportunity we can. Being homeschoolers makes this easier, as we can literally just pick up and school from everywhere. But, usually, we don’t do our normal course work while we’re on the road. Here is how we homeschool on vacation.

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Read about where you’re going

This is a no brainer. There are so many great books out there about so many people, places, and things that you can almost always find a book on it. Or at least a short YouTube video. Something.

Our last short trip we took to the Outer Banks and we learned all about the Wright Brothers. Not only did our boys earn another Junior Ranger badge (more about this in a minute), they requested to read more about them in the Who Were the Wright Brothers book.

The Who Was, What Was, Where Is books are awesome. These books have been amazing for our trips. I just found one on Milton Hershey to get ready for our upcoming trip to Hershey, PA. Seriously, check out the series of Who, What, Where books!

Junior Ranger Program

Depending on where you’re traveling, there are national and state parks all over. At these parks, you can take advantage of the Junior Ranger program.

This program involves getting a booklet at the visitor center, filling out a number of pages (how many is determined by age), usually attending some type of ranger talk or watching a short movie, and then turning them back in to a Ranger to receive a super cool badge with the location name on it.These booklets and packed with educational information! My kids learn so much about the location, whether it be about nature, a historical location, about a person… They’re phenomenal.

We’re starting to get so many badges that I had to create banners to display them on. You can also get vests to display your badges on. (You can also earn badges at home through the Junior Ranger website!)

Work on geography

You may think the license plate game is a thing of the past, but I challenge you to play it on your next trip! Especially when you use a map that requires your kiddo to mark off the states geographically on the map, like the one I am posting below (and giving you for free!)

Something else we love to do since we travel so much is so use a scratch off map in our camper. Each new state we visit (even if we just drive through it…we usually make sure we at least stop for gas to say we stopped there), our kids are able to scratch off the state.

FREE License Plate Game Printable!

Want a copy of my license plate game? All you have to do is subscribe to my mailing list. Don’t worry, I won’t sell your info and I won’t send you a bunch of spam. You’ll just get the occasional post update and newsletter from me. Sound good?

Enjoy what the location has to offer

It’s as simple as that- enjoy it! Turn those phones off (other than for pictures…take lots of those), talk to the people in charge, ask questions, enjoy nature, soak up the world around you. There’s no better way to learn than to let the world be your guide. So, go out there and explore it!